Last Friday was Sal Piro's 1060th time.

Tonight will make it 1063.

And next week Piro will see the Rocky Horror Picture show for the 1065th time.

Every Friday and Saturday night, Piro--who holds the world record for seeing the film most often--emcees the midnight showing of Rocky Horror at New York's Eighth Street Playhouse.

To the 10 p.m. tenplex moviegoer, Rocky Horror may just seem like your ordinary rock musical about the corruption of a naive young couple whose car breaks down one dark and stormy night and are forced to take shelter with your average transvestite bisexual doctor who happens to live in a large and sinister castle.

But Rocky Horror is much more than just a bizarre movie. Although a flop when it premiered in 1976, Rocky Horror made a late-night comeback as the nation's ranking cult film. The film's followers, not content with memorizing the script, have devised a series of now-traditional audience responses.

Every Friday and Saturday at midnight, fans across the nation arm themselves with toilet paper, rice and toast in preparation for the bizarre ritual. When the film's crazy Dr. Frank-n-furter proposes a toast, the audience pelts the screen with--you got it--slices of toast. And when rain soaks movie characters Brad and Janet, audience members drench each other with water pistols.

Transvestites on the Rocks

The Rocky Horror phenomenon began and almost ended in April of 1976. After a disastrous premiere at New York's Waverly Theater in Greenwich Village, managers relegated the "flop" to the midnight run.

That was all it took. Midnight audiences soon formed a Rocky Horror cult that, over the past decade, has spread not only across the country, but across the world.

Piro, who was there when it all started, says it was an "amazing" phenomenon. "It was one of those right-time, right-place things. One day, somebody cracked a one-liner back at the movie. The next time, somebody tried to top it. Soon, people were dressing up as characters, and maybe getting up and acting a part or two. All these little things happened spontaneously and it grew. It really took off."

Rocky Horror might have taken off, but the viewers didn't, returning time and time again to throw toast, squirt water, and contribute to the film's $60 million success.

Today, few of the people who flock to the late-night spectacle are "virgins" or first-time viewers. "At every show, I ask who has seen the movie before," Piro says. "Usually, it's at least 90 percent of the people. What's more astounding is that about three-fourths have seen it at least 10 times. It's very remarkable."

As fan Scott D. Dailard '90 says, "Why not go to Rocky Horror? Where else can you dress up like crazy characters and throw Wonderbread at people?"

A Walk on the Rocky Side